Poll - Should Rafa stay?

[JohnDoe]

If you sent them out with instructions to play slowly, not to take on players, not to push forward and not to commit defenders, they'll be ineffective and ****.

Telling Kuyt/Lucas/etc. to play a fast tempo, take players on, push forward and commit defenders will not make them suddenly capable of it. We've got three players in the entire squad who can do what you've mentioned (Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun). The rest of our attacking players are incompetent.

[Guest]

Is that because you love Rafa Benitez and not Liverpool FC?

It'll be the same with every other manager. Football these days sucks, supporters in general suck. The fickleness of it and the constant boasting of 'we should win this - we should win that' sickens me.

[Craig_H]

Telling Kuyt/Lucas/etc. to play a fast tempo, take players on, push forward and commit defenders will not make them suddenly capable of it. We've got three players in the entire squad who can do what you've mentioned (Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun). The rest of our attacking players are incompetent.

Players who Rafa bought, are they not?

So perhaps this emphasises more than anything, that Rafa believes in slow paced, workmanlike, pedestrian football. And not high tempo, attacking football, which commits opposition players and forces them into errors.

Is that because you love Rafa Benitez and not Liverpool FC?

Not having a go at PeteBest, but his mindset on being a football fan, and mine, are worlds apart. Each to their own i guess.

It'll be the same with every other manager. Football these days sucks, supporters in general suck. The fickleness of it and the constant boasting of 'we should win this - we should win that' sickens me.

You're right, we should be basing our expectations on a mantra of losing 9 games out of 29.

We shouldnt expect to be able to go to places like Woves, Portsmouth, Wigan etc, and win.

Because obviously, a squad containing the likes of Reina, Johnson, Agger, Carragher, Mascherano, Benayoun, Gerrard and Torres, doesnt have the class to beat sides like that...

[-V-]

It'll be the same with every other manager. Football these days sucks, supporters in general suck. The fickleness of it and the constant boasting of 'we should win this - we should win that' sickens me.

We are all frustrated and fed up. But the difference is that you are so in love with Benitez that you can't imagine any of it is his fault and therefore you blame the players and the fans for your frustrations. Also to not expect to beat bottom half teams is something I don't understand coming from a Liverpool fan

[The Birdman]

I think he should stay for a couple of reasons -
1. You get nowhere with chopping and changing, this is the 1st season he has had complete control of the youth and reserves and look at the results and players that have been brought in.
2. Who can we attract that is better? all the bad publicity, the owners, lack of money who is really going to come in and do a better job.
3. Can our injuries really be as bad next season??

[Guest]

We are all frustrated and fed up. But the difference is that you are so in love with Benitez that you can't imagine any of it is his fault and therefore you blame the players and the fans for your frustrations. Also to not expect to beat bottom half teams is something I don't understand coming from a Liverpool fan

I ain't in love with Benitez I just hate stupid fickle fans who think that winning football matches is done just by 'turning up' and because we have Torres and the likes in our team. These are human beings, not robots.

[Craig_H]

I ain't in love with Benitez I just hate stupid fickle fans who think that winning football matches is done just by 'turning up' and because we have Torres and the likes in our team. These are human beings, not robots.

Nobody thinks we will win just by turning up - apart from the players, perhaps. And they have that mindset because the manager is allowing it.

[red g]

I ain't in love with Benitez I just hate stupid fickle fans who think that winning football matches is done just by 'turning up' and because we have Torres and the likes in our team. These are human beings, not robots.

you win games with a winning mentality. We dont have that as we are obsessed with cancelling out other teams and not playing our games.

I am sick to ****ing death of it.

[MrMichael]

I said about a month or so ago that I thought Benitez had passed the point of no return at Anfield. I don't think our current predicament is entirely his fault, what with the whole ownership / finances shambles etc, however on the pitch there has been a noticeable change from what we've seen under him in previous years, and its a change I don't think we can reverse. Benitez' style of play can only be successful when his players are functioning as a genuinely cohesive unit, his tactics emphasize the strength of a team rather than a collection of individuals. During bad patches in past seasons the team has always shown some amount of mental fortitude to lift themselves up and continue implementing his gameplans with belief that it will pay off in the end. The amount of goals we used to score in the last 20mins of games was a testament to that. Sometimes we played really good football, sometimes not so good, but we never seemed aimless, disinterested, and resigned. This season we have done with monotonous regularity.

I really believe that if the current team was 3-0 down at half-time in Istanbul they'd lose 7-0. Our backbone has gone, our belief is non-existent, and like it or not, right or not, in the football business, the buck for that stops with the manager.

[Shaggy]

I think he should stay for a couple of reasons -
1. You get nowhere with chopping and changing, this is the 1st season he has had complete control of the youth and reserves and look at the results and players that have been brought in.
2. Who can we attract that is better? all the bad publicity, the owners, lack of money who is really going to come in and do a better job.
3. Can our injuries really be as bad next season??

This is how I want to feel, I really want to feel this but I can't. Maybe I'll change my mind again in a few days but for now the only way I can see us getting out of this mess is if Rafa goes. And Gerrard.

[Guest]

This is how I want to feel, I really want to feel this but I can't. Maybe I'll change my mind again in a few days but for now the only way I can see us getting out of this mess is if Rafa goes. And Gerrard.

Gerrard has got to go and Rafa probably knows it. I think he'll be the big casualty this close season. We're going to pocket £50m for him and we'll rebuild. That's what I want anyway. Rafa just ****ing do it.

[MrMichael]

I ain't in love with Benitez I just hate stupid fickle fans who think that winning football matches is done just by 'turning up' and because we have Torres and the likes in our team. These are human beings, not robots.

Dude, most of us don't think that at all, and you know it.

Its not the results alone, its the manner of them. The entire season our attacking play has been utterly aimless. We're probably the most predictable team in the league going forward. We have no guile, no creativity, no pace, no real sense of any cohesive plan. Every single team in the league knows they have a shot at us if they're organised at the back and give it some heart up front. Its just not good enough, whatever the excuses Rafa is not getting even close to the performances he should be out of the players at his disposal. Individually they have a hell of a lot of responsibility for that on their own, but collectively that responsibility must eventually becomes his.

[Shaggy]

Gerrard has got to go and Rafa probably knows it. I think he'll be the big casualty this close season. We're going to pocket £50m for him and we'll rebuild. That's what I want anyway. Rafa just ****ing do it.

I just think the bloke is too much of a problem. If we're gonna start again we should do it with a clean slate. He's clearly sulking this season and his attitude is ****ing ****. Let's say he doesn't like the manager - not a wildly speculative notion by any means. So, what if he doesn't like the next one either? Why should any prospective new manager have to pander to Gerrard's gargantuan ego and his needs? I'm tired of it. Why don't we just let Steven pick the next manager FFS? Him and Carra can conduct all the interviews.

[red g]

I said about a month or so ago that I thought Benitez had passed the point of no return at Anfield. I don't think our current predicament is entirely his fault, what with the whole ownership / finances shambles etc, however on the pitch there has been a noticeable change from what we've seen under him in previous years, and its a change I don't think we can reverse. Benitez' style of play can only be successful when his players are functioning as a genuinely cohesive unit, his tactics emphasize the strength of a team rather than a collection of individuals. During bad patches in past seasons the team has always shown some amount of mental fortitude to lift themselves up and continue implementing his gameplans with belief that it will pay off in the end. The amount of goals we used to score in the last 20mins of games was a testament to that. Sometimes we played really good football, sometimes not so good, but we never seemed aimless, disinterested, and resigned. This season we have done with monotonous regularity.

I really believe that if the current team was 3-0 down at half-time in Istanbul they'd lose 7-0. Our backbone has gone, our belief is non-existent, and like it or not, right or not, in the football business, the buck for that stops with the manager.

mate of mine a wigan fan was at the game last night and he said pretty much the same thing.

He said 15mins in you could almost see the life dragged out of them and they just didnt know what to do.

No fight, no bottle, no clue!!

[Guest]

I just think the bloke is too much of a problem. If we're gonna start again we should do it with a clean slate. He's clearly sulking this season and his attitude is ****ing ****. Let's say he doesn't like the manager - not a wildly speculative notion by any means. So, what if he doesn't like the next one either? Why should any prospective new manager have to pander to Gerrard's gargantuan ego and his needs? I'm tired of it. Why don't we just let Steven pick the next manager FFS? Him and Carra can conduct all the interviews.

I feel the same mate and that's why I can't entirely blame Rafa for what's happening this season. It's going to be the same problem all over again with a new manager, maybe it will work for six months but there will come a time when he's going to face that conundrum that is Gerrard.

Last night was appalling. He was absolutely awful and offered nothing. As soon as Rafa moved him closer to Torres, he started to be enjoying himself more. WTF? He doesn't call the shot and that kind of attitude just stinks and must be felt throughout the team. If Rafa has one mistake it's because he doesn't know how to deal with Gerrard, partly because he's got so much influence at this club.